Creosote bill new ground for government

When it comes to the environmental cleanup of the proposed CalgaryNEXT’s West Village site, there’s no precedent for the province stepping in to cover the cost, said the premier.

“We have operated in this province for many years on a principle of polluter pay and there’s really no precedent of the province stepping in to pay the cost of remediation when a polluter has contaminated a piece of property,” Premier Rachel Notley said during a visit to the Calgary-Foothills riding Wednesday evening.

The proposed CalgaryNEXT project would be built on a site contaminated with creosote.

Past cost estimates of environmental remediation is in the hundreds of millions and would be in addition to the funds needed to build the centre.

So far, the premier has yet to receive any formal CalgaryNEXT proposal or request for funding, however, if she does, she said she would consider the request while keeping in mind other demands on the government’s coffers.

“We need to build schools, we need to build hospitals, we need to deal with drought relief, we need to deal with flood diversion — there are many, many capital requests and the well is, quite frankly, only so deep,” said Notley.